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INTRODUCTION
1. National statistical offices (NSOs)
are among the pioneers in the use of data processing
technology. Following the advent of microcomputing
and the rapid developments in the area of information
technology (IT), it became essential for NSOs
not only to keep themselves abreast of the developments
taking place in a variety of IT applications,
but also to improve the computer skills of their
statistical staff. The fundamental importance
of information technology in the work of NSOs
has been stressed by the Commission and the
Committee on Statistics in their past sessions.
It is becoming evident that IT applications
will continue to play a crucial role in determining
the effectiveness and efficiency with which
the NSOs function and meet their objectives.
While the basic functions of a statistical agency
can still be identified as collection, compilation,
analysis and dissemination of statistics, fuller
attention to the needs of data users and improving
the timely release of data, their quality and
accessibility have assumed greater importance.
The effective use of IT in statistical operations
has appeared as a continuing challenge to NSOs
throughout the region.
I. APPLICATION OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY TO STATISTICS IN THE ESCAP REGION
2. In the area of IT applications for statistics,
the gap between developed and developing countries
continues to widen. In the majority of
the developing country NSOs, progress in IT
applications during the past decade has been
slow, despite the availability and affordability
of IT options. By contrast, notable gains
have been realized by developed countries, as
well as by some of the statistically advanced
countries. These gains seem to be the
result of a combination of factors, which inter
alia include the presence of an overall or national
policy on IT development in the country; awareness
among the decision makers of the benefits of
IT; support for IT development from the management
of the NSO; adequate budgetary and personnel
resources; attention to training and technical
support for the users of new technology; review
and revision of organizational structure, procedures
and practices; and standardization of hardware/software
acquisition, operating systems, networking protocols,
programming languages, and database management
systems, as well as electronic data interchange
(EDI) applications.
3. Experience suggests that the use of
IT reduces the overall costs of statistical
operations, improves the timeliness and quality
of statistics and creates a better working environment
by reducing routine work. In the area
of dissemination, IT applications allow easier
access to information resources of the NSO and
assist in improving the quality, consistency
and timeliness of hard copy statistical publications.
They enable a faster response to client data
requests and provide greater opportunities to
develop new products and services. In
the area of data collection and processing,
faster and flexible capture of data through
optical mark reading/optical character recognition
(OMR/OCR), computer and/or telephone-assisted
interviewing, and computer-assisted coding have
resulted in remarkable gains, notably in the
more advanced NSOs of the Asian and Pacific
region.
4. Several NSOs in the region are using
the Internet as an additional distribution medium
for products and information that were previously
disseminated through conventional means only.
Besides corporate data and information about
statistical products and services, the NSO Internet
sites offer key country indicators, either in
HTML format or downloadable spreadsheets, and
links to useful statistics-related resources
including other NSO home pages. In 1996,
during the previous session of the Committee,
only four NSOs of the region reported that they
had established home pages on the World Wide
Web (www) of the Internet. Now, 12 NSOs
(Australia; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan;
Macau; New Zealand; Philippines; Republic of
Korea; Russian Federation; Singapore; Thailand;
Turkey) in the ESCAP region are known to have
their own home pages. The Web site addresses
of these NSOs are given in the annex to the
present note.
5. The effective application of IT in
a national statistical system has wider implications
for the organizational structure of the NSO,
its processes and procedures, and the delivery
of its products and services. Certain
applications might be decentralized, such as
data capture and database management.
The introduction of client-server and distributed
computing adds new dimensions to the management
of databases, metadata, data retrieval, updates
and integrity. The client-server data
processing model allows a number of users to
access common server resources which are centralized.
Distributed computing, by contrast, means that
data, like other resources, are controlled in
various locations of the organization.
Organizations may thus find themselves simultaneously
creating centralized server databases and providing
access to decentralized data holdings.
These developments highlight theage-old issue
that the NSOs have grappled with: to centralize
or to distribute the data processing functions.
6. NSOs which have successfully exploited
IT for statistical purposes are consistently
those which have addressed the issue of human
resources development adequately. The
investment in human resources development has
enhanced the capability of their organizations
to monitor technology trends and to identify
applications that offer the best benefits.
7. The development, adoption and implementation
of policies for standardization, equipment and
software acquisition, and technical support
are also among some of the areas which have
to be addressed for successful exploitation
of IT. Information technology standards
concern operating systems, networking protocols,
programming languages, database management systems,
and EDI. Without the standardization of
the hardware and software applications within
the NSO, it would be difficult to maintain effective
management of data collection, processing and
dissemination activities. The use of standards
should be judicious and have the objective of
facilitating interoperability; the standards
should not introduce inflexibility. Another
key to effective utilization of information
technology is the availability of maintenance,
as well as reliable and sustained support.
In the case of software, it is important to
ensure that support, future corrections, and
updates will be forthcoming. In the past,
some software for survey data processing and
analysis was made available to the developing
countries free of cost. However, as new
operating systems were introduced for more powerful
PCs, the software could not be upgraded owing
to the lack of support from the developers,
resulting in difficulties and frustration for
the NSOs.
8. In most developing countries, the computerization
of information management has not progressed
satisfactorily, despite the fact that computer
and telecommunication hardware and software
have become widely available at affordable prices.
The population census, being the biggest single
operation and one of the largest consumers of
IT resources, has received the greatest attention.
However, even in that area many NSOs in developing
countries have barely been able to keep up with
the rapid pace of IT development. Often,
they have resorted to haphazard use of the basic
technology with not much regard for the overall
and future needs of the organization.
Moreover, much attention has been paid to the
acquisition of hardware and software, while
little or none has been paid to needed adjustments
in the organizational structure, practices and
procedures, the testing and selection of appropriate
hardware and software, and the adaptation of
applications to local needs. The issues
of human resources development, data security
and data archival have also received very little
attention. Consequently, several NSOs
in developing countries have faced serious difficulties
in migrating to the latest operating systems
or when support has become unavailable for the
hardware/software on which they depended.
In some extreme instances, the entire data set
for a past census was lost and not available
in the country itself.
9. As recommended by the Committee and
the Commission, the secretariat and theStatistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) are
paying greater attention to promoting the sharing
of experience in the use of information technology
in statistics. For SIAP activities,see
the Director's report (E/ESCAP/STAT.11/7).
The home page of the Statistics Division (http://www.unescap.org/stat/)
provides information on various aspects, including
the year 2000 problem. It is planned to
include additional items of information on the
page. A seminar on the application of
IT in NSOs is scheduled to be held at Taejon
(Republic of Korea) from 15 to 18 December 1998,
for which the Government of the Republic of
Korea is providing financial assistance, host
facilities and technical documents. The
seminar is expected to make recommendations
on best practices in the application of IT in
statistical offices.
10. The Committee is requested to take
note of the issues raised above and give its
comments and recommendations.
II. APPLICATION
OF NEW TECHNOLOGY TO POPULATION DATA
A. Introduction
11. In view of the vast scope for the
sharing of experience on IT applications to
population data, in 1997 ESCAP initiated a project
funded by the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA). The project aims at promoting
effective utilization of modern technology in
population data collection, processing, dissemination
and presentation. Its outputs include
guidelines, development of applications in three
pilot countries, reports on technology applications
and country experience, newsletters and a package
of materials to increase awareness. Under
the project, the Working Party on the Application
of New Technology to Population Data has been
established, on which experts from Australia,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand,
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are represented.
Experts from SIAP and the Statistics Division
of the United Nations (UNSD) have also participated
in the meetings of the Working Party.
In general, the Working Party is expected to
guide technically the ESCAP secretariat in the
implementation of activities designed to accomplish
the objectives of the project. The project
activities are also expected to be strengthened
through contributions from the organizations
represented in the Working Party.
B. Terms
of reference of the Working Party
12. The terms of reference of the Working
Party are as follows:
- To play a pivotal role in
consolidating the experience of the countries
in the application of new technology to population
data and in sharing it within the region;
- To identify priorities and
provide guidance to the activities of the
project;
- To advise the secretariat
on the strategy, approach and modalities to
be adopted in undertaking project activities,
producing its outputs, and meeting the immediate
objectives;
- To review and monitor the
progress of project activities and submit
observations, suggestions and recommendations
to the secretariat and the Committee on Statistics;
- To formulate procedures
and make arrangements for the active participation
of the members and their parent organizations
in the activities of the project and its outputs,
including the preparation of guidelines and
technical advice for the pilot countries;
- To play the focal role,
and guide the secretariat as necessary, in
securing close cooperation and inputs to the
project activities from various national and
international organizations;
- To determine the timing
and provisional agenda of its own future meetings.
C.
Recommendations of the Working Party
13. The following paragraphs provide a summary of the
recommendations of the two meetings of the Working
Party. The Committee is requested to give
its views on various issues raised by the Working
Party.
1. First
meeting
14. The first meeting of the Working Party
on the Application of New Technology to Population
Data was organized by the Statistics Division
of ESCAP at Bangkok from 24 to 26 September
1997. The meeting adopted its terms of
reference and identified information technology
applications that could be implemented in selected
pilot countries. It discussed approaches
to developing guidelines that could be useful
in increasing the effectiveness of the use of
information technology in population statistics.
The Working Party decided to focus its second
meeting on the use of the Internet, and asked
the secretariat to hold the meeting at a suitable
venue. The following are selected recommendations
of the first meeting of the Working Party:
- Recognizing that the parent
organizations of some of its members were
engaged in a wide range of evaluations of
technology options for various aspects of
population data processing, the Working Party
recommended that the results of such evaluations
should be shared;
- The Working Party decided
that the major focus of the project would
be on emerging information technology;
- The Working Party identified
the following three core areas as the major
focus of the project:
- Geographic information
systems (GIS) in census and survey applications;
- Imaging and data capture
technology;
- Application of Internet-based
technology;
- As the Internet could be
used at various stages of population data
collection and dissemination, the Working
Party decided to focus its second meeting
on that topic and related issues;
- In the light of its major
focus, the Working Party decided that the
topics and the sites of the three pilot applications
should be as follows:
- Imaging technology:
Indonesia;
- Use of GIS for census
operations and dissemination: Philippines;
- Use of Global Positioning
System (GPS) for preparation of census
enumeration area maps: Bangladesh;
- The Working Party recommended
that a subgroup should be formed to review
the imaging technologies and facilitate their
selection and deployment;
- The Working Party recommended
that the secretariat should conduct a survey
to assess the use of information technology
in population data collection, processing
and dissemination;
- The Working Party recommended
that five issues of the project newsletter
be produced with the following focus:
- Introduction to the
project: proceedings of the first meeting
of the Working Party;
- Internet;
- GIS (including GPS and
satellite imagery);
- Imaging, data capture
and hand-held devices;
- Summary and evaluation
of the project;
- The Working Party recommended
that the following three sets of "guidelines"
be produced under the project:
| Topic |
Coordinator |
| Dissemination |
Secretariat |
| Mapping |
Bangladesh/Philippines |
| Data entry, capture, processing and archiving |
Indonesia |
2. Second meeting
15. The second meeting of the Working
Party was held in Singapore from 1 to 3 April
1998. Host facilities and a number of documents,
demonstrations and presentations were contributed
by the Department of Statistics of Singapore.
A meeting of the subgroup on imaging technologies
was also held. As recommended at its first
meeting, the main focus of the second meeting
of the Working Party was the use of the Internet.
Within that theme, the meeting discussed the
overall approach to Census 2000, use of secured
Internet connections in data collection and
dissemination, Internet applications at various
stages of population data collection and dissemination,
useful database applications and systems, and
a proposal for a package of materials to increase
awareness on the application of modern technology
to population data. The Working Party
also reviewed the progress of work under the
project and made a number of recommendations
on measures to improve progress in various activities.
The Working Party also considered a questionnaire
drafted by the secretariat for conducting a
survey to assess the use of information technology
in population data collection, processing and
dissemination. Based on the questionnaire,
as revised by the Working Party, the secretariat
initiated the survey in April 1998 requesting
the 56 NSOs in the region to return the questionnaire
by 15 June 1998. By the end of September
1998, 26 questionnaires had been returned.
As suggested by the Working Party, the results
of the survey are presented for the consideration
of the Committee as document E/ESCAP/STAT.11/13/Add.1.
16. A summary of selected recommendations
emerging from the second meeting of the Working
Party is given below:
- The Working Party recommended
that the guidelines to be prepared under the
project should benefit the developing countries,
be self-contained, and that their focus should
not be limited to the domains of the pilot
applications;
- Noting the constraints of
the secretariat in producing the project newsletter,
the Working Party requested the secretariat
to solicit contributions from members;
- The Working Party requested
the secretariat to dedicate a section to the
Working Party on the Statistics Division's
Web site, featuring the newsletter, meeting
documents, recommendations, guidelines and
other work done in the project;
- The Working Party decided
that the third meeting would be held tentatively
in October 1998, focusing on population data
capture, coding, verification and work flow.1
It approved the provisional agenda and documentation
plan for the third meeting, as proposed by
the subgroup on imaging technologies;
- It also recommended that
the fourth meeting of the Working Party be
tentatively scheduled for March 1999, with
a focus on GIS;
- Noting the positive experience
of Singapore and other countries in using
the Internet in data dissemination, the Working
Party encouraged, in general, all national
statistical offices to establish an effective
Internet presence and use it innovatively
in census and survey operations;
- The Working Party noted
the innovative efforts of some countries in
using the Internet for data collection and
encouraged them to share their experience
with other countries;
- The Working Party recommended
that NSOs adopt an incremental and modular
approach to developing a Web site, especially
when resources were limited;
- Noting that several advanced
NSOs were depending on e-mail for their daily
communications and had thereby significantly
increased their productivity, the Working
Party recommended an extensive use of e-mail
and other Internet applications by all NSOs
in census planning, document sharing, data
transfer and other related functions;
- The Working Party noted
that to achieve maximum benefits from the
new technologies, changes might be necessary,
among other things, in organizational structures,
coordination arrangements and individual responsibilities.
It recommended that NSOs should take a critical
look at population data operations as a whole,
with a view to "reengineering" them to meet
the requirements and opportunities of Internet
technologies. It stressed that systematic
training of staff was essential to instil
a holistic approach that took the technology
into account from the beginning;
- The Working Party recommended
that metadata be included as an essential
component at census Web sites as they added
considerably to the value of population data.
The metadata could include such information
as the general organization of the census,
coverage, census forms, instructions to field
workers, methods followed in derivation of
numeric results, accuracy, sampling methodology,
and references to published reports;
- Mindful that a large number
of Internet users in developing countries
were behind a narrow bandwidth connection,
the Working Party cautioned authors not to
include large graphics components on pages
because that would make download times prohibitive.
The Working Party emphasized that it was important
for the developers to test Web pages with
low-end browsers that did not support graphics
and provided a text-only alternative;
- The Working Party noted
that the development of electronic commerce
technologies and secure data encryption had
opened up new possibilities for commercial
statistical products. It urged NSOs
to consider that new area as another means
of data dissemination;
- Noting the benefits of the
Internet in making statistics available to
users faster and in greater depth than previously,
the Working Party recommended that statistical
offices streamline their release approval/authorization
processes to match the significant progress
achieved in the technical dissemination process;
- The Working Party noted
that a number of software, applications and
solutions have been developed by NSOs which
could be shared among the countries/areas
of the region. It recommended that such
software and applications which might be available
for distribution be listed on the ESCAP home
page.
D. Future work
17. As mentioned earlier, the future work
of the project will be guided by the recommendations
of the Working Party. The third meeting
of the Working Party will be held in Indonesia
in January 1999, with a focus on imaging technology
and a review of activities carried out under
the project. This meeting had to be postponed
from October 1998 in order to have available
progress reports for all three pilot projects,
while the secretariat's schedule of meetings
and staff resource constraints also necessitated
the postponement. Accordingly, the fourth
meeting has now been scheduled for May 1999,
in which the main focus will be on GIS.
Two issues of the Newsletter are expected to
be released in 1998, while the technical information
emerging from the activities of the Working
Party will be made available on the World Wide
Web page of the Statistics Division.
18. A review of the project was conducted
by the donor in July 1998. It was recommended
that, to enhance their relevance, the guidelines
should be prepared more in the manner of manuals.
A two-week training workshop on the application
of new technology to population data, where
the applicability of such manuals could be tested,
was then recommended as an additional activity
of the project. This workshop is expected
to take place around October 1999.
19. The Committee's views are sought on
the progress achieved by the project to date,
and on the outline of future work as indicated
above.
Annex2
1
The third meeting of the Working Party has now
been scheduled to be held in Bali, Indonesia
in January 1999.
2
National statistical offices in the region
are requested to send information concerning
their World Wide Web home page address or any
corrections that might be necessary in this
annex. |
